


Father

by AlmondRose



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, child abuse mentions, claustraphobia, featuring arthur brown and his assholish ways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-24 01:30:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12002100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlmondRose/pseuds/AlmondRose
Summary: steph knows one thing, and that's that fathers objectively suck





	1. Chapter 1

When Steph is seven years old, her mom unlocks her from the closet the next morning, and she holds Steph as she cries into her mom’s shoulder. 

 

“I  _ hate  _ him,” she sobs. “I hate him.”

 

“I know you do, baby,” her mom says, patting her hair down smooth. “I know you do.”

 

Steph’s dad could be anywhere, and he probably won’t return for another week or maybe more. Steph’s glad to know that he’s gone. 

 

“Why is he so terrible?” Steph asks into her mother’s shoulder. 

 

“I don’t know, sweetie,” Crystal says. “I don’t know.”

 

Her mom sounds sad sad sad, and Steph says “Maybe you could leave him? We could go somewhere else?”

 

“I’ve thought about it,” Crystal says. “But he would find us, and he’d be angry. I don’t--I don’t want that for you.”

 

\----

 

Steph is twelve and she has bruises on her face and arms and she’s claustrophobic and she wishes she could be anywhere but there. Her dad’s been back from Blackgate for about a week and Steph wishes he died in prison. 

 

Steph puts ice on her arms and her mom comes into the kitchen. 

 

“Are you okay?” her mom asks, and Steph nods. 

 

“What if--what if I become like him?” she whispers, and she’s never said this out loud before, but it’s been a concern of her’s for a while now. “What if it’s in my blood, the Brown blood?”

 

“Oh, baby,” her mom says, and she sits down next to her. “Sweetie. You won’t hurt your kids. You won’t be like him.”

 

“What if I can’t help it?” Steph says miserably, and her mom reaches for her hands to hold them. 

 

“I’m gonna tell you a secret,” her mom says. “But you can’t tell anyone.”

 

“Okay,” Steph says, her eyes wide. 

 

“Arthur Brown is not your father,” Crystal says. “I wasn’t sure, but I got a test done. He isn’t your father.”

 

“He’s...he’s not?” Steph asks, and hope wells up in her chest. 

 

“No, he’s not,” Crystal says, and Steph lunges for her. 

 

“Then who’s my real dad?” she asks, wrapping her mom in a hug. “He could help us!”

 

“I-I don’t think he’d want to,” Crystal says. “It doesn’t matter who your real dad is. There’s no blood that’ll make you turn out like Arthur Brown, but blood doesn’t determine what kind of person you are. It’s your actions that do that.”

 

“But...he’s not my dad!” Steph says, giddy. 

 

\-----

 

The next time she’s locked in a closet, she clutches her legs and buries her face in her knees and tries not to have a panic attack. 

 

_ He’s not my real dad, not my real dad, not my real dad,  _ she repeats, and it makes her feel better. 

 

\-----

 

He may not be her real dad, but he’s the only dad she’s ever known, so she still knows she has to stop him. 

 

Cluemaster is a terrible villain, but his name’s been ringing in her ears for far too long. 

 

It’s time for that to stop. 

  
  


\-----

 

Steph scrapes together a costume and she goes out and she listens in and makes clues and she writes  _ Let the puzzlement fit the crime  _ in giant letters across a building, which makes her feel a little guilty and a little thrilled. 

 

She loves the thrill of it, the running around and the sneakery and the planning. She makes a puzzle for the police to follow, and she stays a few steps ahead of her dad  _ and  _ the police, and Batman and Robin find her in a greenhouse. 

 

She hides, but Robin is good and he finds her. 

 

He grabs at her mask and she hits him in the face with a brick before he can pull it off, and she runs away and hopes they didn’t get a good look at her. 

 

\-----

 

Batman finds her a few days later, sans Robin, on the rooftop of Wayne Enterprises. 

 

He lands next to her and she asks, “Did I break his nose?”

 

Batman frowns and says, “Yes.”

 

“Good,” she says. “Little twerp shouldn’t have tried to take off my mask.”

 

“Who do you align with?” Batman asked. “Are you Cluemaster’s assistant?”

 

“ _ No _ ,” Steph spits. “I’m trying to take him down. He doesn’t know I exist.”

 

_ Hopefully,  _ she adds, but she doesn’t say that out loud. 

 

“If what you say is true, how would I know?” Batman asks, and Steph whirls around to face him. 

 

“Aren’t you the world’s greatest detective or something? Can’t you sleuth it out? I’m telling the truth, I hate him, and you’ve gotta believe me!” 

 

“Hmm,” Batman says, and Steph wants to cry. He can’t think she’s bad! She’s good and she wants to stop Arthur from hurting anyone else! But she can’t tell him that, so she doesn’t. 

 

“Whatever,” she says sullenly. “You don’t have to believe me. It’s cool, whatever.”

 

“What do I call you?” Batman asks suddenly. 

 

“I’ve been calling myself Spoiler,” Steph admits. 

 

“I like it,” Batman says. “Where are you getting your information against Cluemaster?”

 

“I have my ways,” Spoiler says. “You know. Sources.” Batman looks her over again. 

 

Steph knows that she’s small and her costume is homemade and she doesn’t look like much, but she hopes he believes her. 

 

“Fine,” Batman says. “You may continue what you’re doing, but if I find out you’ve been helping Cluemaster--”

 

“Whatever threat that is doesn’t matter because I’m not helping him,” Spoiler says stubbornly, and Batman’s mouth twitches up in a smile.

 

“Of course,” he says, and then he’s gone, and Steph can’t help but do a victory dance. 

 

\-----

 

“When will Bruce come back?” Steph’s mom says, in a drug-addled haze. “Where is he?”

 

“Bruce who?” Steph asks. She’s eating a sandwich and her mom is wandering the kitchen. 

 

“Bruce Wayne,” her mom says. “He said he had fun. Did he not?”

 

“Do you know Bruce Wayne?” Steph asks, her mouth falling open. Steph doesn’t know a lot about him, but she sees his face on the  _ Gotham Gossip  _ magazine and on the front page of the newspaper. She’s pretty sure he’s some sort of idiot. 

 

“We had such fun,” her mom mumbles, then she leaves in a wandering daze. Steph stares after her. 

 

\-----

 

She googles Bruce Wayne, and he and her mom are nearly the same age, so maybe they knew each other in school?

 

Except Bruce was either homeschooled or in Gotham Academy, and her mom went to Gotham High. Bruce went to Yale or something and her mom went to Gotham University. 

 

Steph doesn’t find a lot else, besides that he’s always being stupid and that he has a lot of money and that he has one dead son. 

 

There’s a lot of stuff about Bruce’s dead kid, who was named Jason, and Steph isn’t sure if Jason was adopted or a result of one of Bruce’s scandals, since Bruce was never married. There’s another kid, who’s older, and a recent thingy about him says that he’s a cop now, which is cool, Steph supposes. 

 

Other than that, Bruce Wayne is sort of a mystery. His parents died when he was a kid, but it’s Gotham and Steph’s not super surprised. Bruce was raised by a butler and he vanished for like five years when he was in his early 20s. 

 

All of it’s interesting, but Steph thinks it’s probably pretty much celebrity gossip. 

 

She doesn’t know how her mom and him know each other, but maybe they went to the same summer camp or something. 

 

\------

 

Steph thinks Robin is annoying and Batman’s kinda chill, which she didn’t expect since she thought Batman was supposed to be a giant jerk or something. 

 

She barely knows both of them, but Robin acts like he’s superior and Steph will admit that he’s kinda cute, but he’s still rude to her. At least Batman’s not awful. 

 

Steph’s pretty sure as long as she keeps providing them with information against Cluemaster and she doesn’t actually betray them, then it’ll all be good. 

 

So she keeps plotting and scheming and being three steps ahead of her dad and a step ahead of Batman and Robin and she mostly keeps to herself. 

 

She loses sleep but neither of her parents notice, and her grades stay in the B range which Steph is proud of, and she doesn’t have time for art or piano anymore but she tells herself it’s a necessary sacrifice. 

 

\----

 

Spoiler gives Batman some intel and Robin appears with hot chocolate, and he has a third cup. 

 

He gives some to her and some to Batman, and he keeps a third for himself, and they sit on the edge of a rooftop and Spoiler stares down at the city. 

 

“It’s so beautiful,” she says. She’s only up on all rooftops to rely stuff to Batman, and she never really stops to appreciate the city. 

 

“It is,” Batman says. “This is what I fight for.”

 

“Wow,” Spoiler says softly. 

 

“It looks better from far away,” Robin says. “It’s really gross and broken up close.”

 

“That’s why you fight, though, isn’t it?” Spoiler says. “To fix it?”

 

“Exactly,” says Batman, and he sounds surprised. “That’s exactly it.”

 

\-----

 

After what feels like eons, Cluemaster is finally put away, this time in Arkham and with a personal guard, and Spoiler feels like her job is done. 

 

She doesn’t want it to be done, she wants to keep being Spoiler and still helping Batman and she hopes Batman doesn’t tell her to stop being Spoiler, but he puts his hand on her shoulder and says, “Maybe we can work out a role for you,” and she’s never felt more excited. 

 

\----

  
  


A dark shape appears in front of Spoiler, and she stumbles back. The shape rights itself into a Batman-esque silhouette, except more slender and the ears are longer. The shape steps forward, and there are black eyes and white stitching in an arc under the nose. 

 

“Um,” Spoiler says, because she can’t keep her mouth shut. 

 

“You,” the shape says, and the voice is raspy as if from unuse but decidedly feminine. “Train. Batcave.”

 

“Who are you, exactly?” Spoiler asks, crossing her arms. 

 

“Batgirl,” the other girl says, her voice gleaming with pride. Steph is pretty sure there used to be a Batgirl like a million years ago, one with red hair? This Batgirl looks creepy but okay, sure.

 

“And what did you want from me?” Spoiler asks. Batgirl takes a deep breath and her words are slow and deliberate. 

 

“Batman...wants you...to train...with him...in the Batcave,” she says and then she pauses. “Make sense?”

 

“Yes!” Spoiler says. “I would love to train with Batman!” Batgirl nods. 

 

“Make sense?” she asks again and she sounds uncertain and Spoiler realizes that she’s not talking about the content of her information. 

 

“Yes, your sentence was very good,” she says, and Batgirl beams with pride. Spoiler can’t see her face, but she knows. “Are you here to take me to the Batcave?”

 

“Yes,” Batgirl says. “Batman...trusts me.”

 

“That’s cool,” Spoiler says, and Batgirl turns. 

 

“Come.”

 

Batgirl grapples her up the rooftops, and then Spoiler follows her. Even though she’s never seen Batgirl in action, she suspects that she’s very well trained. They get almost to the edge of urban Gotham when Batgirl heads down from the rooftops and pulls a motorcycle out of nowhere, then another one that’s identical to the first. 

 

“Oh my god,” Spoiler says, and she climbs down carefully and climbs on. Batgirl revs up her motorcycle and starts to drive away; Spoiler figures it out and follows close behind her. 

 

She can’t help but let out a whoop as she drives and she hopes that Batgirl doesn’t hear her. Batgirl veers off of the path and Steph follows, driving after her into a cave. 

 

They drive underground for a while and then the cave blossoms from a tunnel to a cavern and Steph can’t help but stare. 

 

The Batcave is huge and ridiculous and wonderful and Steph stares and stares and she loves it. 

 

\----

 

Batman is standing on a mat near the middle of the cave, wearing workout clothes and a cowl. Spoiler almost snorts when she sees him, because he looks ridiculous. 

 

She dismounts and Batgirl vanishes; Steph can only assume she went to go patrol. 

 

“I don’t usually train with my cowl on,” Batman informs her. “But I wanted to leave us on even ground. You may wear your mask, or I can provide a domino mask for you if you’d prefer.

 

“I’ll keep mine,” Spoiler says. “So this is really happening? You’re gonna train me?”

 

“I thought that you could acquire information for me and obtain it. We have someone on tech, but you could be a field agent to provide for me.”

 

“I like it,” Spoiler says. 

 

“If you’re going to work with me, you have to be trained by me,” Batman says. “So here we are. Suit up, I’ve provided some workout clothes for you in the locker area.”

 

“Okay,” Spoiler says, and she runs over to where there’s benches and showers. She finds a purple tank top and laughs, and there’s also workout pants and a black domino mask. 

 

Steph changes into the tank top and pants and puts on her own mask, feeding her ponytail through the hole in the back. 

 

She goes back out to Batman. 

 

“How did you know my size?” she asks, and he smiles. 

 

“I have my ways,” he says. “Let’s train.”

 

\-----

  
  


Later, she meets Oracle over the Batcomputer. Robin and Batgirl come back and Robin seems pissed that Spoiler is there. Spoiler doesn’t care. 

 

Batman tells her that he’s gonna edit her file on the computer, and he weighs her and measures her and records her race and hair color. Steph’s not sure why he needs all this. 

 

There’s a section that says “identity”, and Batman turns around in his chair. 

 

“I have thus far refrained myself from discovering your identity out of respect for you,” he says. “But if you want, you can tell me and I can put it down here. I don’t use this information  _ for  _ anything, and I’ll tell you my identity as well.”

 

“Really?” Robin asks. He sounds shocked. “I had to discover it on my own!”

 

“And Spoiler has proven herself a valuable asset,” Batman says. 

 

“Whatever, I have to go home,” Robin mutters, and he leaves. Spoiler shifts, uncomfortable.

 

“Well?” Batman asks. 

 

“If I tell you, will your opinion of me change?” Spoiler asks. She’d love to know who Batman is, but she’s afraid. What if he decides to quit all this once he finds out that she’s the daughter of a criminal?

 

“Not one bit,” Batman says. 

 

“You can’t promise that,” Spoiler says, crossing her arms. 

 

“You don’t have to tell me,” Batman says. Batgirl taps Steph on the chest. 

 

“Trust,” she says, then she vanishes again and Steph turns back to Batman.

 

“Fine,” she says, and she reaches for her mask. “But only since it’ll probably aid in team-building.”  _ And because I don’t want to be left out,  _ she doesn’t say. 

 

She pulls off her mask. 

 

“Stephanie,” she says, because there’s no way he’d recognize her on sight.  

 

“Bruce,” Batman says, and he pulls off his own cowl. Steph’s jaw drops. 

 

“Wayne?” she says, her voice strangled. 

 

“Yes,” Bruce says. “Bruce Wayne.”

 

\-----

 

Steph tells him her last name, puts her mask back on, and leaves, her mind spinning. 

 

Robin is  _ Tim Drake,  _ son of some rich people who live next door to Bruce Wayne, who is Batman, and she’d been under Wayne Manor that whole time. 

 

Alfred Pennyworth had come downstairs and he’d been nice. 

 

Batgirl was Cassandra Cain, who was living with Bruce. 

 

Oracle was the first Batgirl, and also Barbara Gordon, daughter of the police commissioner, which is  _ insane.  _

 

The first and second Robins are Bruce’s older sons, and Steph remembers belatedly that Jason and Robin II are both dead, which is….uncomfortable. 

 

She goes home and curls up in her bed and her mind is reeling and she doesn’t know what to do. 

 

Her last thought before she goes to sleep is that her mom knows  _ Batman. _

  
  


\----

 

A few training sessions later, Oracle is the only one there. She tells Steph that Batman was busy, and then she tells her she needs to take some blood for samples. 

 

“Is Bruce gonna make me crawl through vents?” Steph asks her while Babs readies the needle. “Like to get intel or whatever? Because I’m super claustrophobic.”

 

“I don’t know,” Babs says, and she pushes the needle inside Steph’s arm. “He probably will. You’ll have to get over your fear.” 

 

“Okay,” Steph says dubiously. Babs takes the sample and puts it next to a computer thingy. 

 

“I’m gonna run this sample, and you’re gonna run through your stretches. All of it should be fairly routine.”

 

“Okay,” Steph says, and she goes over to the training mat to start. A few minutes later, Babs calls her over. 

 

“So everything looks fine,” Babs says, showing her the screen. “But I was running some checks--to make sure your blood matches with your parents, it’s all routine--and while your mom matches, your father--did you know that Arthur Brown isn’t your biological father?” 

 

“Yeah,” Steph says, quietly. “I don’t know who my real dad is.”

 

“I can run the entire system,” Babs says, looking at Steph sideways. “He might not be in here, but he also might be.”

 

“Do it,” Steph says. “Please.” 

 

Babs types something in, and numbers flash across the screen, until--

 

MATCH flashes across the screen, and there’s a picture of Steph, and next to it---

 

Steph has to sit down in shock.

 

“Oh my god,” Babs whispers, her hand covering her mouth. 

 

Next to Steph’s picture is a picture of Bruce Wayne. 

 

\-----

 

Steph makes Babs promise not to tell anyone, and she goes home in shock. Babs lets her skip training. 

 

Steph finds her mother. 

 

“Mom,” she says. 

 

“Yes, baby?” her mom asks. Her mom is doing a lot better, and she’s in the kitchen, probably about to go to work. 

 

“Tell me about my dad,” Steph says, and she sits down. “My real dad.”

 

Her mom sits down, contemplative. 

 

“I suppose there’s no reason not to tell you,” she says. “Well. I was volunteering at Leslie Thompkin’s clinic, and I met him. 

 

“He was bruised up from a fight, and he was saying goodbye to Leslie. He was about to go on a huge trip! He and I got to talking, and we hit it off. We wandered the town together, and we kept talking and talking. He was leaving for the adventure of it. I was in medical school. We rented a hotel and stayed together for two days. He left in the middle of the second night, and I don’t regret any of it.” Crystal smiles at her, and puts her hand on Steph’s cheek. 

 

Steph stares at the table. 

 

“What about Da--Arthur? How did you pull off that I was his?”

 

“Arthur and I had been on and off for a while, and were at an ‘off’ when I met your father. He and I got back together the week after your father, and it was easy to pretend.”

 

“Oh,” Steph says. “A-and my dad? Did he ever come back?”

 

“Yes,” Crystal says. “But he wasn’t the same, so I didn’t tell him. Besides, for a while I wasn’t sure which man fathered you.”

 

“Oh,” Steph says again, and Crystal stands up. 

 

“I have to go now, sweetie,” she says, and she kisses Steph’s forehead and leaves. 

 

Steph stares at her hands and wonders. 

 

\------

 

Something goes wrong. 

 

\----

 

Everything goes smoothly, just as it should, until Tim quits being Robin. 

 

Tim quits, and Steph thinks that if she’s Robin, she can prove herself as Bruce’s daughter. 

 

All of the Robin’s were Bruce’s kids, after all.

  
  


\----

 

Steph makes a costume, calls Nightwing and asks for permission, and Batman lets her be Robin. 

 

For two glorious months, everything goes fine. 

 

Until it doesn’t.

 

\----

 

Seventy-three days after Steph became Robin for real, she’s fired and Bruce tells her to never come back and Steph isn’t sure what she did wrong. 

  
  


All she knows is that dads are  _ always  _ a disappointment. 

  
  


\-----

 

Dads suck and are the worst, and Steph can’t help but still want to be good enough. 

 

She wants to remind Batman what she can do, remind Bruce that Spoiler is three steps ahead of even  _ Batman,  _ remind her dad that she’s part of this bat-family, too. 

 

So she steals a plan, and she tries her best, and. 

 

And. 

 

It doesn’t work. 

 

\--------

 

Bruce is at Stephanie Brown’s funeral. 

 

He sees her mother, crying near Stephanie’s grave, and he remembers her. 

 

He remembers the two days with Crystal, whose last name wasn’t Brown yet, and he ignores the pang of guilt in his chest. 

 

He should’ve saved Stephanie, if not for his own peace of mind then for her mother’s. 

 

Crystal had been his last fling before he’d left, before the training and before Ra’s, and when he’d gotten back he’d looked her up. 

 

Married, and with a daughter. 

  
  


Bruce had been happy for her. 

  
  


Not so much, anymore. 

 

\-----

 

He stays in the shadows and he hopes Crystal doesn’t see him and he hears Babs’s wheelchair roll up next to him.

 

“You knew her mom, didn’t you,” she says and it’s not a question. 

 

“Yes,” Bruce says, too much in grief to question how Barbara knew. 

 

Oracle always knows. 

 

“Remember the blood samples?” Barbara continues. “For the files?”

 

“Yes,” Bruce says, not sure where this is going.

 

“Steph and I found something out, that day,” Barbara says. “She made me promise not to tell, but you need to know. She deserves it.”

 

“What is it, Oracle?” Bruce asks, and Barbara says, “Arthur’s not her father.”

 

“What?” Bruce asks, and he turns and Barbara is gone. 

 

He does the math. 

 

Bruce Wayne falls to his knees in the middle of a graveyard and cries. 

 

\----

 

“I can’t treat her differently because I know,” Bruce says, pacing his office. “She’s  _ alive  _ and I can’t tell my  _ daughter  _ that I know she’s my daughter and I just--”

 

“Bruce, slow down,” Dick says. Dick is sitting in Bruce’s chair behind his desk, and Bruce feels like both Dick  _ and  _ the portrait of his parents are staring at him, judging him. 

 

“I don’t know what to do,” Bruce says miserably, turning to face him. 

 

“What do you  _ want  _ to do?” Dick asks. 

 

“Pay for her college and invite her to move in with me and buy her mom a new house,” Bruce says immediately. 

 

“See, that’s a little extreme,” Dick says. “Both of them will think that you’re buying them over.”

 

“You think I don’t know that?” Bruce says, tearing at his hair. 

 

“My advice,” Dick says, leaning back in his chair and putting his feet up on the desk. “Would be to pretend that you don’t know and see what Steph does. Then you offer to pay for her college-- _ if  _ she’s okay with you being her dad. It’s entirely possible that she doesn’t want  _ any  _ fathers right now.”

 

“I just--” Bruce says, and he drops onto the couch. “I don’t want this to be like Jason.”

 

“Jason still loves you,” Dick says. “And Steph will too.”

 

\-----

 

“Hey, Bats,” Spoiler says into his comms in the middle of patrol. She’s barely said two words to him since she came back, and Batman knows this is a trap. 

 

She tells him during patrol, then she vanishes and never mentions it again. 

 

Bruce recognizes the tactic because she gets it from him. 

 

“O told me that she told you about my bio dad,” Spoiler continues. Her voice is carefully cheerful. 

 

“Hm?” Batman says, punching a thug across the face. 

 

That’s right, she’d cornered him during a  _ fight.  _

 

She’s good.

 

“Just wanted to tell you that I knew, is all,” Spoiler says, then she disconnects and Bruce does  _ not  _ feel better. 

 

\-----

 

Bruce, apparently, had decided to keep sending Spoiler to do the sneaky stuff--which is just fine with Steph. 

 

Just pretend everything’s normal and don’t say anything, always a good way to go. 

 

And having Spoiler be the same would be  _ fine  _ except that this time--there’s vents she has to crawl through. 

 

She’s not sure if she can do it, but she has to try. She can’t let Batman know she’s weak. 

 

So she crawls up into the vents, and she wiggles to the right spot, and so far so good--except when she has to stop moving. 

 

She has to stop moving so she can stare down through the grate and she’s not moving and the people aren’t there yet and the walls are closing in and she’s in the closet again, coats pressed on her back and shoes under her feet and her father, raging outside and Steph can’t breathe. 

 

She tries to and shallow breaths come out and she’s panicking, hyperventilating, and she can’t do it she can’t do it she can’t do it.

 

“Spoiler?” Batman’s voice fills her ear. “Are you in position?”

 

“Y-yes,” Steph croaks out, and she tries to focus on her job. “T-the room is e-empty.”

 

“What’s the matter?” Batman asks. “Is everything okay?”

 

“S-sure t-thing, Boss,” Steph manages to say, and she feels tears sticking to her mask and pooling in her eyes. She can barely talk and she’s having trouble breathing and--

 

“Are you claustrophobic?” Batman asks, and Steph makes a noise that seems to serve as confirmation. 

 

“Okay, Spoiler, I want you to listen to my voice,” Batman says, and he’s dropping the growl a little, and it’s soothing. She nods, although she knows he can’t see her. “You’ll be fine. You’re just in a tunnel. Robin is coming to extract you.”

 

“N-no,” Steph mumbles, and Batman continues. 

 

“You’ll be okay. You’re just in a vent. No harm will come to you there. Imagine a big, open space. You will be okay.”

 

Steph’s stupid mask prevents tears from falling down her face and she wants to die. Bruce keeps talking, and he tells her about a time he was stuck on the roof of Wayne Manor, and she tunes out the words but listens to the sound of his voice, and then he says, “I’m outside. Robin is coming to relieve you,” and then Robin is there next to her, his face nearly uncomfortably close to hers. 

 

“Hey,” he says. “It’s okay. Can you get out?” 

 

Steph wiggles forwards and once again, moving is easier. 

 

“Yes,” she rasps, and Tim nods. 

 

“Okay,” he says. “If you need help, I’ll be right there.”

 

“‘m fine,” she whispers. Steph crawls forward, and Oracle’s filtered voice fills her ears, informing her of turns. 

 

Steph finally finds the exit grate, and she climbs up onto the roof and stays on her hands and knees, breathing in the cool, clean air in big gasps and she sees Batman’s boots in front of her, and she looks up and then she’s in his arms. 

 

She hugs him around his neck and he’s hugging her back, holding her up, and she sobs into his shoulder and his hand cradles the back of her head and he says, “It’s okay, Stephanie, it’s okay.”

 

\------

 

They don’t really talk about their feelings, but Bruce invites her to live with him and she says yes. 

 

She tells her mom she wants  _ away  _ from the house her father lived in, and her mom agrees and talks about getting a new apartment. 

 

Her mom could afford a one-room, she thinks, and Steph’s so so happy for her. 

 

She moves into the manor and Bruce buys her a new piano and Steph pretends not to cry. 

 

Her room is next to Tim’s and he never sleeps but it’s okay, and it’s across from Cass’s and Cass sneaks into her room when they’re supposed to be asleep, and they paint each other’s nails and talk about Harper Row from Cass’s school. 

 

Steph doesn’t know if Bruce is quite her dad, but these are her siblings. 

 

Dick comes over and when he sees Steph he scoops her up and whispers, “Little sis,” into her hair and she barely knows him but he’s her brother, too. 

 

She doesn’t know at all Jason but she finds him, one day, and she tells him she used to be dead and that he tells her he did, too, and she suspects that he’s distant with all his siblings but maybe he’ll be less distant with her. 

 

It feels good and she works on finishing high school online and she dances in the kitchen with Tim and trains with Bruce and gossips with Cass, and everything will be okay. 

 

\-----

 

Damian comes and it shocks everyone. 

 

He tells Bruce that he’s the “one true heir” and he spews something about all of the kids living with Bruce being imbeciles and Steph doesn’t know how to deal with it. 

 

Damian’s her  _ blood brother  _ and Steph doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t think Damian knows. 

 

\-----

 

Damian’s been there for like, a week, and Bruce dies. 

 

Bruce dies and that’s her  _ dad  _ and Steph cries and cries.

 

She never told him she loved him. 

 

She never called him Dad.

 

\-----

 

“I should be Robin,” Damian spits. Steph turns to look at him. It’s just her and Dick in the Batcave. Dick is Batman because Cass has vanished and Steph is Batgirl because, well--Cass has vanished. Tim is gone and Damian is in the middle of the Cave, his arms crossed and looking angry. 

 

“Tim is Robin,” Dick says. 

 

“ _ I’m  _ the one true heir,” Damian says. “ _ I’m  _ the son of Batman.”

 

“Bruce was my dad, too,” Dick says, tiredly. Steph pulls on her cowl and fluffs her hair. 

 

“Fine, then, I’m the  _ blood  _ son of Batman.” Rage fills Steph to the core and she turns on her heel and marches up to him. 

 

She’s said maybe two words to Damian, since he’s super reclusive and she’s been mourning. 

 

“Listen up, you entitled little psycho,” Steph says. “You are  _ not  _ the only blood child of Bruce Wayne, but it doesn’t matter. Your blood does not determine your worth and Dick and Cass and Tim and Jason are just as much Bruce’s kids as you and I. It doesn’t matter that they were adopted, Bruce saw them as his kids and they saw him as his dad, and that’s what matters. Bruce made Tim Robin and he wanted Tim to be Robin and Bruce may be gone but we  _ have  _ to respect his wishes. Being Robin doesn’t make you the ‘heir’ of Batman or whatever anyway-- _ Cass was Bruce’s ‘heir’ and she never touched a Robin suit.  _ The only reason she isn’t Batman right now is because she dropped off the face of the earth--Dick doesn’t even want to be Batman! You’ve been here less than a month and you need to calm down. We’re all grieving and in pain here, and you trying to spew some bullshit about being the ‘true son of Batman’ isn’t helping anyone, especially you.”

 

Damian blinks at her. 

 

“You’re...Father had a  _ daughter?”  _

 

“He had two,” Steph says, crossing her arms. 

 

“Steph, come on,” Dick says. “We need to go.”

 

“I know,” Steph says, and she looks at Damain. “Think about what I said.”

 

Alfred comes and puts a hand on Damian’s shoulder. He shakes it off and Alfred smiles at Steph with pride in his eyes. 

 

Batgirl follows Batman out of the cave, but she doesn’t feel any better. 

 

\-----

 

After patrol, she finds Damian in his room. He’s not sleeping, just staring at the wall. 

 

“Hey,” she says, leaning against the doorway. Damian startles and throws a batarang at her head. She dodges and it hits the wall behind her. “I’m not sorry I yelled at you, but I’m sorry that it was so mean.”

 

“it’s fine,” Damian mumbles. “I think...I think Mother was wrong about how things work around here.”

 

“Probably,” Steph says. “Want to tell me about her?”

 

Damian looks surprised. 

 

“Are you truly Father’s blood daughter?”

 

“Yes,” Steph says. 

 

“I thought your last name was Brown,” he says, and he sounds confused. 

 

“That’s my stepdad,” Steph says. “And besides, I’m gonna change it.”

 

“Oh,” Damian says. He thinks for a minute. Steph lets him. “Do you still wish to hear about Mother?”

 

“Sure,” she says, and he nods at his bed. 

 

“You may sit,” he says imperiously and she tries not to laugh, just sits where he inclined and draws her knees up to her chest. 

 

Damian starts to talk, and Steph tries not to be horrified. 

 

\-----

 

“He was  _ abused,”  _ she tells Dick. “Talia would, like, hurt him and he’s been training to be a killer since the age of three.  _ Three!”  _

 

“That’s insane,” Dick says, dropping his head in his hands. “He probably has no idea, huh?”

 

“He thinks that that’s normal!” Steph says, desperately. “I can’t--how do we help him?”

 

“We just have to show him,” Dick says. “That’s all I can imagine there is to do.” 

 

\----

 

Dick and Damian start to train, and Dick corrects Damian when he tries to be too violent. 

  
  


Steph brings Damian with her when she goes to change her last name. 

  
  


The three of them walk around Gotham together, and Steph notices Damian staring at all the dogs. 

  
  


Damian goes out as Flamebird.

  
  


Tim calls to tell them that Cass is in Hong Kong. Steph calls the number Tim gives and Cass tells her that she doesn’t know what to do. 

  
  


Steph and Dick take Damian to get a puppy. He names the dog “Titus”.

  
  


Damian calls Steph “Stephanie” instead of “Brown” or “Wayne”.

  
  


Damian hears Steph practice piano and asks Dick for a violin. 

  
  


Cass comes back to Gotham with the code name of Black Bat. 

  
  


Some street kids start a movement due to the lack of Robin. It’s led by a boy named Duke Thomas. 

  
  


Damian lets Steph hug him. 

  
  


Jason has a team now and when he’s in Gotham, he drops by to say “hi” to his siblings. 

  
  


Steph and Damian do a piano/violin duet, and Cass dances to their song and Dick records it all. 

  
  


Damian calls Cass and Dick by their first names. 

  
  


Dick starts training the  _ We Are Robin  _ people. 

  
  


Alfred gets a family picture of all of them and Damian  _ smiles  _ in it. 

  
  


Steph feels like they’re a family. 

  
  


\----

 

Tim calls and tells them that Bruce is alive. 

 

\----

 

Bruce comes back and Steph runs to him and cries and calls him “Dad” and Damian calls him “Father” and everyone is crying and Steph is so  _ happy.  _

 

“My kids,” Bruce says, and he hugs them tight. “My  _ kids.” _

 

\-----

Steph’s been chasing a plot for a while now, and she finally comes to find it’s end with Arthur Brown. He smirks at her and she gasps. 

 

“ _ Arthur?”  _ she asks, her mouth falling open.

 

“Is that any way to treat your father?” Arthur asks. 

 

“You aren’t my father,” Steph says, shaking herself out of her daze. 

 

“What are you talking about? Of course I am,” Arthur says. 

 

“Haven’t you heard the news, or has jail been rotting your brain?” Steph says. “Bruce Wayne is my dad.”

 

“You’re lying,” Arthur says. 

 

“Ask anyone,” Steph says, raising her arms out wide. “You don’t have any power over me.”

 

“I did all this to avenge you!”

 

“No, you did all this to meet your twisted mind games,” Steph says. “I don’t care about you anymore.”

 

She walks out and she takes great satisfaction in slamming the door behind her. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the bit where crystal and bruce meet, as it didn't fit into the fic but i liked it too much to omit it

Crystal is in college and volunteering for Leslie Thompkins’s clinic. 

 

She likes the work; it’s good practice for her nursing. She’s only just started the med program but she really likes it so far. She wishes Arthur was a little more supportive, but--no. She pushes the thought of Arthur out of her mind and gathers up the documents Leslie had asked her to get. 

 

She and Arthur aren’t dating anymore, and she’s mad at him, Crystal reminds herself. Very mad. 

 

He’s charming, and she loves him, although she’d never tell him, but he keeps breaking his promises to not get into any trouble. He’d almost gotten  _ arrested  _ two nights ago, and Crystal has drawn the line. No more Arthur. 

 

Not if he’s gonna keep messing up like that. 

 

Crystal goes into Leslie’s examining room, where Leslie is with a young man. 

 

The man’s around Crystal’s age, possibly a little younger, and he has dark hair and blue eyes and he’s  _ very  _ handsome. Leslie is examining his hands, which are bloody. 

 

“Stop getting into fights,” she admonishes him. 

 

“Sorry, Les,” he says, grinning a little crookedly. “You know me.”

 

“Stop getting into trouble,” Leslie says, and it sounds like she’s said it a thousand times before. 

 

“I’d really rather not,” the man says mildly. “Besides, I can handle some bloody knuckles. I came here to say goodbye.”

 

“Where are you going?” Leslie asks, stern. She’s clearly very familiar with this man. Crystal doesn’t want to eavesdrop, but she’s already in the room and she doubts that Leslie hasn’t noticed that she’s here. 

 

“Away,” the man says. “Anywhere and everywhere.”

 

“Bruce, honey,” Leslie says, and Bruce extracts his hands from Leslie’s. 

 

“You can’t make me stay,” Bruce says. “If Alf can’t, nobody can.”

 

“Just don’t be an idiot,” she says, and Bruce smiles. 

 

“That, I will promise you,” he says, and he turns to leave. Crystal feels like she’s intruded on something private, but Bruce’s eyes light up when he sees her. 

 

“Hello,” he says, and she smiles sheepishly. 

 

“Sorry,” she says. “I didn’t mean to overhear.”

 

“Just drop the files on my desk, Crystal,” Leslie says. “I need a moment.”

 

“I’ll walk you there,” Bruce says.

 

“You don’t need to,” Crystal says. 

 

“No, I insist,” Bruce says, and Crystal relents and Bruce walks next to her. 

 

“So do you work here?” he asks. 

 

“I volunteer,” she says. “I’m in medical school.”

 

“Good for you,” Bruce says. 

 

“Thanks,” Crystal says. “I’m going to be a nurse.”

 

“I bet you’ll be the best one,” Bruce says. “I’m Bruce, by the way.”

 

“Crystal,” she introduces, and she remembers, suddenly, that she’s single. She drops the files on Leslie’s desk in her office then turns back to Bruce, who’s waiting, expectant. 

 

“I heard you’re going somewhere?” she says, mostly to not get her hopes up about anything happening. 

 

“Yep,” Bruce says. “I think I’ll start with Europe.”

 

“And you have that kind of money?” Crystal asks. Bruce looks startled, and then he laughs. 

 

“I’m Bruce Wayne, Crystal,” he says, and Crystal gasps. 

 

“I didn’t realize,” she says. 

 

“Anyway,” Bruce says. “Yes, I have that kind of money.”

 

“Of course,” Crystal says, and she realizes they haven’t moved from the spot outside Leslie’s office. She doesn’t want to stop talking to him yet. “When do you leave?”

 

“Soon,” Bruce says, and he’s leaning closer to her. “But there’s still  _ loads  _ of time.”

 

“For what?” she asks, and she wonders if this is how rich people flirt, because it seems to be working. 

 

“For an adventure,” Bruce says, grinning, and  _ boy  _ Crystal knows it’ll be one.

 

\----

 

Two days later, Bruce is gone. His note at their hotel room--a penthouse Crystal could  _ never  _ have afforded on her own--says that he really enjoyed her company. 

 

Crystal sits on the fancy, fancy bed wrapped in a fancy, fancy bathrobe and she knows she’ll never forget the last two days. 

 

\----

 

A week later, a bruised and bloodied Arthur comes to Leslie’s clinic, and Crystal cleans him up, and he tells her he’s sorry for how he’s acted. 

 

He’ll change, he says. 

 

He promises. 

  
  


Crystal still loves him. 

  
  


She forgives him. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! feel free to leave comments and kudos!


End file.
